Off-Centered And Side-By-Side: Dogfish Head's Mariah and Sam Calagione

SEIZE THE DAY

“Mom” and “Pop” are unpretentious people. On a hot July morning at Dogfish Head Inn, they don’t primp for the photographer snapping pictures. There is no glam squad entourage, unless you count their black Labrador Retriever, Moxie, who lumbers about the inn’s yard, pink tongue lolling.

Sam has been up since dawn. He usually starts his day with an hour of cycling or paddle-boarding. The positive start to the day reflects the carpe diem mentality that his father and Mariah’s father shared, he says.

Both Sam and Mariah grew up in small towns. A native New Englander who loves cold weather, Sam and his two sisters were raised in Greenfield, Massachusetts. His father, also named Sam, was an oral surgeon and home winemaker. His mother, Mary, was a special education teacher.

One of four children, Mariah grew up in Milford, Delaware. Her father, Tom Draper, owned WBOC-TV and radio stations. Her mother, Rachel Grier-Reynolds, was a licensed social worker. They divorced when Mariah was 16, but both remained along the Delaware coast.

Sam and Mariah met as teenaged students while working in the cafeteria kitchen at North Mount Hermon School in Gill, Massachusetts. Sam was a day student; Mariah had a room on campus. They later shared an art class. “I remember seeing her walk in and saying: ‘Wow, that girl is really pretty,’” recalls Sam, who was a year ahead of her.

Dating at NMH meant hanging out in the student center and going to school dances. Boys visiting the girls’ dorm had to adhere to “awesome rules that were a physical challenge,” Sam says. “You had to keep a shoe in the door, so it was partially open. You had to have at least one 40-watt lightbulb on, and at least three of the combined four feet had to touch the floor at all times.”

No doubt, Sam found a way around most regulations, because by March of his senior year, he’d bent so many rules that the school kicked him out. (In 2018, when the Calagiones’ son graduated NMH, the school gave Sam an honorary diploma.) At the time of his expulsion, Sam had already been accepted to Muhlenberg College, where he got a bachelor’s degree in English. Mariah studied public policy at Brown University. She liked learning how to create a vision and collaborate to make it a reality — skills that she uses today while overseeing Dogfish Head’s philanthropic and community outreach activities.

The couple kept their relationship together while in college, but it wasn’t always easy. In summer, Mariah visited Sam at Dogfish Head, a jut of land in Boothbay Harbor, where his family vacationed. He traveled south to spend time at the Delaware beaches with her family.

After graduating, Sam moved to New York City to take classes at Columbia University with the intent of being a writer. A sip of craft beer changed all that. Sam’s friend Joshua Mandel introduced him to homebrewing, and any ingredient was fair game. Mandell called it “kitchen-sink beer.”

Calagione decided to open a brewpub in a state that lacked one. In the early 1990s, that wasn’t a stretch. He considered Providence, Rhode Island, where Mariah was living. By the time he scraped together more than $220,000 from family and friends, a brewpub had already opened.

NEW ENTREPRENEURS AND NEWLYWEDS

Mariah’s father, Tom Draper, suggested Rehoboth Beach as a location.

“He was really my biggest mentor for my entire career,” Sam says of Draper, who died in September 2017 from injuries sustained after being struck by a vehicle while bicycling. “He and my dad were equity holders in the early days of Dogfish Head.”

From the start, Dogfish Head had a culinary focus. “We did beer-infused food and food-infused beers,” Sam says. “That was our mission when we were the smallest brewery in the country, and it’s still our mission as the 13th largest craft brewery.”

Barely a year after opening the brewpub, the couple wed in a Catholic church in Milford and had their reception beside the Rehoboth Bay. As the 250 guests sat down to dinner, clouds turned purple and a wind roared through the tent. Mariah, who to this day loves following weather patterns, was thrilled. So was the photographer, who pulled them to their feet to take photos against the tempestuous backdrop.

Mariah joined Dogfish Head full time in 1997. Having been the assignment manager for WBOC, she wanted to handle marketing. She wound up taking care of insurance, compliance, payroll and accounting — “none of which I had any experience in,” she says. At the time, Dogfish Head was “teetering on bankruptcy,” Sam recalls. Mariah disguised her voice when creditors called.

When Mariah got pregnant with son Sam, who was born in 1999, she didn’t worry about the pain associated with giving birth. Instead she fretted that she’d go into labor on a Tuesday, when payroll was due. There was only a four-hour processing window, and no one else knew how to do it. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

Initially, Sam was also a jack-of-all-trades. For a time, he was the only sales and delivery person, and he rambled around the mid-Atlantic region in a box truck. He traveled up to four days a week, trying to get home by 11 p.m. each night he could.

As Dogfish Head grew — the brewery now occupies a sprawling campus in Milton — Mariah was able to concentrate more on marketing and social media. “Three of us get together each week and figure out a plan,” she says of Dogfish Head’s social media strategy. “Then I’ll post stuff randomly and mess up the plan.”

Sam still needs to travel, but he schedules business trips for about three days a week, every other week. Mariah accompanies him to the locations that interest her, such as China or Cuba.

EXPANDING THE “FAMILY”

In addition to their two children, the Calagiones’ extended family includes members of the Dogfish Head team. “Our co-workers have worked with us shoulder-to-shoulder to grow the company,” Sam says. They’ve been lucky to attract talented people, he says. But the jobs aren’t limited to the brewery and brewpub.

As of 2014, Dogfish Head also has an inn. Credit Mariah for discovering the opportunity. While sipping wine at Touch of Italy with friends after the Lewes Christmas Parade, she learned The Vesuvius Motel, located across the street, was for sale. The wheels started spinning. Thousands were coming to the coast for Dogfish Head beer each year. Why not give them a place to stay? What’s more, Dogfish Head was spending a lot of money to house distributors and equipment specialists when they visited for work. The Dogfish Head Inn gives them a central place for lodging.

Then there’s the creation of the new Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, the contemporary building that opened in 2017 next to the existing brewpub. It’s part of a downtown Rehoboth Beach campus that includes Dogfish Head’s second eatery, Chesapeake & Maine. Dogfish Head had purchased the C&M space three years before opening the restaurant. They weren’t sure just what to do with it. Ideas began to percolate. In the end, they decided to build a new brewpub, demolish the old and link both restaurants with the courtyard that opened earlier this year.

Chesapeake & Maine only focuses on cuisine from those two regions. “A rewarding challenge, but a challenge nonetheless, is to only source seafood from Chesapeake area and Maine in an era when 90 percent of the seafood sold in restaurants does not come from America,” Sam says.

Some might say that the other challenge is saying “no” to the customer who wants Tito’s vodka. You’ll only find Dogfish Head spirits at the restaurant. Like the beer, these are no ordinary liquors. Consider Barrel Honey Rum, Roasted Peanut Vodka and Lemon & Peppercorn Vodka. Dogfish has been promoting the spirits with new dedicated tours of the facilities, located in the Milton brewery, which this past summer got its own restaurant off the tasting room.

FEEDING THE MUSE AND THE MARRIAGE

The Calagiones became empty-nesters earlier than most. Son Sammy went to NMH for high school, and daughter Grier followed in his footsteps.

When the couple first dropped Grier off at NMH, they realized she was in the same dorm that Mariah had occupied. “We went to load her in the room and were like, ‘Wow, you’re on mom’s hall,’” Sam says. “Then we went to her room, and I was, like, ‘Wow, you’re in the room where I first kissed your mother.’ She was like, ‘Eww.’”

With both kids in school, it’s important to schedule time to reconnect. When they can, the family still gathers in Dogfish Head, Maine, where they have a home near Sam’s parents and sister. “It’s rustic,” Sam says of the area. “It’s not like living on the beach in Rehoboth. We do bonfire on the rocks.”

The also schedule family trips abroad. Although poor internet and cellular phone service might let them disconnect from work, they are never far from thinking about it. New brew ideas come from visits to spice bazaars and eating where the locals eat. In Ecuador, they liked the nutty, coconut flavored cacao they tried so much, they brought some back for a new beer, Ecaudorable!

Whether they’re working or playing — or combining the two like they do at the annual Firefly Music Festival, where Dogfish Head has long had a tent — Mariah and Sam have fun, Mariah says. It’s one of the secrets to their long relationship, Sam adds. “Make sure you’re not just in love but that you really like the person.” In short, make sure you’re true friends, he says.

Mariah’s mother, Rachel Grier-Reynolds, has witnessed the couple’s evolution. Mariah and Sam have always loved each other first, and they continue to delight one another, she says. “It allows them to trust in the process of development and ‘off-centered’ growth. Their relationship and their life are so expansive.”

Their ability to put their relationship first despite the demands of the business reminds her of quote by Rumi. “Somewhere beyond right and wrong, there is a garden,” wrote the Persian poet. “I will meet you there.”